1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cervical orthosis used for bracing cervical spine and the head, and for permitting them to rest because of cervical spinal injury and operations involved therein.
2. Description of the Related Art
Among segments of the spine, the cervical spine has a wide movement range, and from an anatomical point of view, it has complicated construction and functions. According to this fact, it is necessary to brace the wide region from the head and the neck to the trunk in order to securely brace the cervical spine. In view of such an object, a conventional cervical orthosis is generally constructed to wind around the neck and to support the mandible from a downward angle so as to brace cervical spine, as illustrated in, for example, FIG. 13. Although various improvements have been made, for example, by adding adjustment functions to the above-mentioned basic construction, all the resultant braces end up restraining the mandible in order to consolidate further bracing performance.
Such conventional cervical orthoses present the following problems. The use of such orthosis considerably restricts the opening of the mouth by the patient, thus extremely inconveniencing movements necessary in daily life, such as talking or eating a meal, thereby making the patient uncomfortable.